Flops for complete intersection Calabi-Yau threefolds

Abstract

We study flops of Calabi-Yau threefolds realised as Kähler-favourable complete intersections in products of projective spaces (CICYs) and identify two different types. The existence and the type of the flops can be recognised from the configuration matrix of the CICY, which also allows for constructing such examples. The first type corresponds to rows containing only 1s and 0s, while the second type corresponds to rows containing a single entry of 2, followed by 1s and 0s. We give explicit descriptions for the manifolds obtained after the flop and show that the second type of flop always leads to isomorphic manifolds, while the first type in general leads to non-isomorphic flops. The singular manifolds involved in the flops are determinantal varieties in the first case and more complicated in the second case. We also discuss manifolds admitting an infinite chain of flops and show how to identify these from the configuration matrix. Finally, we point out how to construct the divisor images and Picard group isomorphisms under both types of flops.